Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a transmission station and a wireless mobile device. Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) in a downlink (DL) transmission and single carrier frequency division multiplexing access (SC-FDMA) in an uplink (UL) transmission. Standards and protocols that use OFDM include the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard (e.g., 802.16e, 802.16m), which is commonly known to industry groups as WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access), and the IEEE 802.11 standard, which is commonly known to industry groups as WiFi.
In 3GPP radio access network (RAN) LTE systems, the transmission station can be a combination of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs (also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs), which communicates with the wireless mobile device, known as a user equipment (UE). The downlink transmission can be a communication from the transmission station (or eNodeB) to the wireless mobile device (or UE), and the uplink transmission can be a communication from the wireless mobile device to the transmission station.
The transmission station and the wireless mobile device can communicate via time-division duplexing (TDD) or frequency-division duplexing (FDD). TDD is an application of time-division multiplexing (TDM) to separate downlink and uplink signals in a time domain. In TDD, downlink signals and uplink signals may be carried on the same carrier frequency where the downlink signals use a different time interval from the uplink signals, so the downlink signals and the uplink signals do not generate interference for each other. In FDD, a transmitter and a receiver to operate using different carrier frequencies. In FDD, interference between downlink and uplink signals is avoided because the downlink signal uses a different carrier frequency from the uplink signals. In LTE, a frame structure type 2 can be used for TDD, and a frame structure type 1 can be applied to both full duplex and half duplex FDD.
Multiple transmission stations may be relatively close in proximity to each other to provide full wireless coverage to mobile devices. Inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) or enhanced ICIC (eICIC) may be used for resource coordination to reduce interference between the transmission stations (or nodes). At any instant in time, an interfering node (or an aggressor node or transmitting node) may generate interference for a victim node (or receiving node) or victim mobile device (or receiving device).
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.